Church of Jesus Christ of the Universe

By Mauro

1 October 2022

Translated audio

We have begun the path we have decided to take by offering our life to Jesus through Mary. The path leads us to know the Father, to know the will of God, to encounter eternal life, which is to know the Father.[1]

We too are among those to whom Jesus speaks today in the Gospel: “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see,” (Luke 10,17-24). I tell you that if you do not feel this blessing, if you do not taste it, it is because you are still focused on yourselves. Wherever you are, in any trial, situation or state of joy or spiritual aridity, it must be clear to you that you are blessed for of all that the Lord has told us and will tell us, and for where He is leading us.

In this view, I say that today St. Therese[2] is the example of a person, who discovered this blessing, a girl who became a women and yet died early at the age of 24. She sought it from childhood, found it and reached fullness within nine years, from the age of 15 to 24.

Another figure that has been with us during this week is Job, the whole story of Job; he is perhaps closer to us and helps us understand a bit how God leads us to “knowing the Father”. If we look at it, along the path of their life both Therese and Job met Love, with a capital letter; they met God because God is Love. Look, this is the path that is asked of each of us, and we also want to walk it. I think we all remember St. Paul’s “Hymn to Love”.[3] He begins by saying: “But strive for the greater gifts” (1Cor 12,31) – I won’t say it all as you know it – and at the end he says: “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love” (1Cor, 13,13).

If you look at Job[4] – and, please, see yourselves in him – you will recognise the transformation of a man who believed. Job believed in God; that is clear to everyone, right? When they came to tell him that the sheep, the donkeys and all family were dead, he got up and said: “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised“ (Job 1,21). Job had already given a great testimony. He was a faithful man, but his faith was tested, and this applies to each one of us. He was tested by the loss of all he had. Everything was taken away from him: all he had materially and even his children. Everything was taken away from him, he was left with nothing; he remained alone with his faith, which had been tested.

In that moment, he thought he had his friends, but they damaged him; they did not help him at all, quite the contrary. Even in that respect, He was alone, abandoned, betrayed. The material things and his family had been taken away from him, but his friends had betrayed him. He had not lost them, but they had betrayed him. Precisely there, in that solitude, he encountered the Lord, he encountered life in that terrible situation, and we hear him say: “I know that my redeemer lives” (Job 19,25). When he was left with nothing, that faith came out, his “Yes”, spoken at the time of conception, manifested itself. “I know that my redeemer lives.” Also, he gained new hope as he said: “I will see God; myself will see him with my own eyes“ (Job 19-25-27). Therefore, the whole story of his life was led by this faith and hope and going towards encountering Life.

What Job experienced forcefully becomes, as we often say, a great help for us: we acknowledge that we are human beings in need of everything. When Job was left with nothing, he needed everything, and then he spoke those words: “I have spoken twice, I have spoken three times, now I do not speak anymore. I thought I knew, now I don’t say anything anymore. I thought I had understood but I hadn’t understood anything.”[5]

We all have to go through this, and God knows how everyone has to go through it, each in his own situation. So, Job remained silent; but what remained silent in him? His ideas, his thoughts, his logic, all the knowledge he had of God, everything he had learned, because it was no longer of use. His friends, his so-called friends, were also silent because no one could help him, only faith, hope and love.

Thus, we come to what we heard from Job[6] today: he recognised that he only knew God by hearsay, that he only had an image of God. I do not want to upset you, but that it is true for each one of us. Today’s Gospel says: “No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him” (Luke 17,22).

Nevertheless, on this path, all this revealed to us, and we can take this path if we let go of our ideas and thoughts, our logic and our certainties. It is a step that everyone must take; it is what we call transformation, which makes us pass from theoretical knowledge (I speak of us, not of Job) of all books, of the Gospel, all messages and everything. There may be theoretical knowledge, but true knowledge comes from standing face to face with God. Knowing God as He is and knowing ourselves in God as God knows us, this is the path for everyone. I have spoken of St. Therese today, because she followed that path.

As so often, today there is again a beautiful passage in the Gospel: “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children“ (Luke 17,21).

With “the little ones” he does not mean the beggars, the worthless, the fool. The little ones are those who know that God is the One who makes them walk the path; they know that it is the Holy Spirit who instructs them. Whatever happens to them in life, whatever trials they experience, in faith they know that God makes them walk that path. They just have to listen with faith, hope and love. We are little in this sense, because we do not count on ourselves, on what we know, we do not even count on our prayers. All of us have to come to say, “I’m silent, I won’t say anything anymore. I only know that my Redeemer is alive”. That is enough. If we do not get there, we will not encounter Love. We will not encounter the Love St. Francis talks about.

When I speak of love, faith, hope and charity, I do not mean charity as aid. The only knowledge that matters is knowing that we are in God’s hands, that God guides our life, that God is here, that the Blessed Virgin Mary is here, that we are on a path of transformation, and thus we go through all trials with this attitude. This is the knowledge, there is no other. Only this, I repeat, leads to pure love, selfless love, that seeks nothing. This love does not seek anything for itself, not even for others. It is the Love that knows everything.

If you listen to Therese’s song, “If I ever committed,”[7] you will notice that she has encountered this Love and she expresses it by saying that she is not worried about sin or anything else, as she knows that only one God can love her this way and she throws herself into His Heart.

I have said that it is not a question of charitable activities; we do not have to prove anything. We do not have to show that we love God by doing certain things, not even by praying. We do not have to show God that we love Him because we worship Him, because we celebrate Mass. We just have to love Him and let ourselves be loved. This is the path, and that is why we are asked to be faithful and simple. The little ones let themselves be accompanied on this path. It is Love with a capital letter; it is God. When we speak of encountering pure love, we mean encountering God, standing face to face with God because God is Love. St. Francis[8] spoke about this in his message and St. Clare[9] completed the message of St. Francis. I will read out some passages. I will not mention if it is Francis or Clare who speaks: you will recognise them.

“I bless you, my dear brothers and sisters! I would like to tell you this: always remember that the supreme law of the Spirit is pure love. God loves us with His pure love and we are bound to love one another with that same love: selfless, spiritual love that does not want to own anything or anyone, love that does not seek advantage. This is the most important law, without which you cannot understand the Cross and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, nor can you be people of integrity, much less live in communion.

Pure love is the first law that descends from God. You are all called to discover pure love. … Selfish people are afraid of pure love because pure love gives selfishness no chance. If one does not reach pure love, even in the spiritual life, one does not reach anything, despite beautiful words and good works, which, however, do not always prove the love of God: every prayer, every word, every action should be nothing but pure love, alive and working through those who accept it. If you do not act out of pure love, without any other desire than to expand this love, every work remains an end in itself, even if done in the name of God.

This love inflamed my earthly life and is still burning in my spirit; it is love that transformed me into the Beloved: the stigmata I received in my body were only the outward sign of my union with the crucified Christ. … This is the spirit in which I lived, the spirit of the Franciscans: to desire and accept the pure love of God; to live the pure love that seeks nothing for itself; to love all living beings with this love, allowing oneself to be transformed by the love of the Beloved. From this derive perfect joy and highest poverty.”[10]

“When we are willing to live for God, when we desire to belong only to Him and we offer ourselves fully to Him, then true contemplation arises, which is the fruit of trusting abandonment to God. … In this way, a story of love begins between the human being and God, which will not end even with death; on the contrary, in the dimension of eternity, the loving and the Beloved become one. … Love, I mean true love, blossoms in contemplation. As I have already told you, the person who loves desires to look at the loved one. Contemplation is the child of love and never an end in itself: contemplation leads to action because by contemplating God’s Love, the person feels filled with that love and moves towards the neighbour. He loves others with God’s Love and discovers the same Love in his brothers and sisters. … From all this, you may understand that all of you are called to complete contemplation and that it is part of your life; truly, the Christian’s life should be a contemplative life. … In fact, the human spirit is made to know God; however, it cannot know what it does not see. That is why contemplation is necessary: it is the gaze of the spirit turned to God, and that allows man to know God as He is.

God, who is Spirit, dwells in the human spirit. The presence of the Holy Spirit in your spirit is like a fountain in the middle of a garden. … In your closed garden, you can contemplate God and rest in Him. It is in your spirit that you rest, more than in any other place in the world. Therefore, true resting lies in contemplation, as man could experience before original sin. Jesus came to introduce humanity to the place of true rest in God; He opened the new and living path towards the Father. Therefore, everything will be gathered up in Jesus Christ, and He will introduce the entire humanity of the universe and all creatures into the new creation, where humanity and creation will rest in God forever with no more tears, no more tiredness or corruption.”[11]

May the Blessed Virgin Mary accompany us today on this path; I ask Her to give us Her blessing and the blessing of all our Guardian Angels, who are accompanying us. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

[1] See John 17.3

[2] St. Therese of Infant Jesus (of Lisieux)

[3] See 1Cor 13

[4] See Job 1,6-22

[5] Job 40,3-5 paraphrased

[6] See Job 42, 1-3.5-6.12-17

[7] Saint Therese of the Infant Jesus: “If I ever committed the worst of crimes I would retain the same trust forever, because I know that this multitude of offences is just a drop of water in an ardent brazier.”

[8] See Message of St. Francis of Assisi of 17 September 2012, “The Pure Love of God”, published in the book “Towards the New Creation – Vol. III – Messages 2012”, and in Messages by Year on our website

[9] See Message of St. Clare of Assisi of 20 Mai 2013, “You are a garden locked up … a spring enclosed, a sealed fountain” (Song of Solomon 4,12-15), published in the book “Towards the New Creation – Vol. IV – Messages 2013”, and in Messages by Year on our website

[10] St. Francis, footnote 8

[11] St. Clare, footnote 9